You Can Startup Any Time You Like, etc.

The following data from a recent World Bank report caught my eye. From a larger study, I compare the the rankings of the top ten countries for ease of starting companies with the ease of closing companies in the same places.

Country

Starting

Closing

Australia

1

14

Canada

2

4

New Zealand

3

16

United States

4

18

Ireland

5

6

United Kingdom

6

10

Puerto Rico

7

28

Mauritius

8

66

Singapore

9

2

Georgia

10

105

Apparently, in some countries (to adapt The Eagles) you can startup any time you like, but you can never leave.

I work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Georgia, consulting to small business here. It’s absolutely amazing how much work they’ve put into changing business start-up laws, and how little they’ve put into business termination law. There’s a reason that Georgia is listed as #105… There are literally thousands of entities that are no longer functional but still ‘exist’ nominally as the cost of termination outweighs the practicality of closing.